We have a lot of large pinecones around my house and was looking for ideas of projects to do with the kids and maybe a few for me. I have looked on the internet and found a few cheesy ones but none that I really liked. Any ideas?

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All you needs is a fairly sturdy cardboard, pine cones, a pretty ribbon, and hot glue gun.

Cut the card board a little smaller then the size of the wreath or larger candy cane you would like to use on a door or wall to hang. Hot glue the pine cones to the card board, and also together on the sides so not to fall off. Make sure there are no open spots, and see if it looks like a pretty wreath or candy cane? Spray with some Shelac or a some sort of clear coat to protect it if you want to before adding the ribbon.Put the ribbon on the bottom of the wreath or a smaller ribbon in the turn of the in the candy cane. Attach something to use to hang it on the door or wall. I have a candy cane one that is old that a friend of mine made years ago for me.For me I have pine cones in the yard, but I think you can get them for a reasonable price.

We have one made into a skier. It has large craft sticks for the skis, a wooden ball for the head (with a face painted on) a hat and scarf mad out of felt and ski poles made out of skewers with one of those star shaped beads on the end (the ones that kind of interlock when you stack them)

Last year I led a craft for 5/6/7 year olds using pine cones. We turned them into angels. Certainly you could adapt to your own desires/budget but here's what I did:

-used wooden balls purchased at a craft store. They need to have a hole in one side.-got hot glue all inside the hole on the wooden ball and then inserted the end of the pine cone into the hole and let dry.

You now have a body with a head

-for wings we used everything from sprigs of pine branches (real and fake), leaves from silk flowers - you could even draw them out of cardboard. Just glue on a pair - fly them up, fly them down - you pick

- a pipe cleaner wrapped wround the back and meeting in the front becomes arms. They can hold sprigs of berries, candycanes, snowflake - anything you can think of! Those $1 picks at the craft store become very useful!

-for hair I had the kids use spanish moss - you get a LOT of angel hair from one bag! But you can use yarn or even leave them bald.

-for halos I bought a bag of wedding ring favors. They're the perfect size halo to glue on top of the hair!

-draw the face on with markers or leave with no face.-add glitter or leave plain.-add ribbons, bows - whatever you want

As you see, the possibilities are endless and the cost is minimal!

What did we do with the leftover pinecones? Rolled in peanut butter and birdseed and fed our feathered friends!

I know my mom has bought scented pinecones several years to put in a basket by the fireplace (so when it gets warm they make the house smell). I dont know how you get them scented...I assume a few drops of oil would work or maybe you could soak them in something. But they smell really nice and look pretty in a basket too.